San Francisco-based startup, Mya Systems, has developed an AI recruiter that can evaluate CV’s, schedule and conduct applicant screenings, and even congratulate you on your first day of work.

Short for “my assistant,” Mya chats with applicants via their computer or smartphone to ask many of the typical questions expected in early job interviews: When could you start work? Could you accept £15 per hour? How many years of experience do you have?

Mya Systems’ founder Eyal Grayevesky told CNNTech, “Even when candidates don’t get a job, they’re excited to hear back at all because they’re so used to the black hole of resumes.”

The only indication shown on screenshots of simulated job interviews, showed the word “Bot” appeared next to Mya’s name. Otherwise, there was no obvious indication that it wasn’t a human messaging back. The experience is similar to a text message conversation.

If the bot deems the potential applicant a good fit, then she’ll schedule an in-person interview with the human hiring manager. Directions are even automatically sent via Google Maps as well as tips on what to wear.

If the applicant isn’t suitable for the role, Mya suggests other jobs to which they might be better suited, based on keywords and their postal code.

Mya is cloud-based and integrates directly into a company’s applicant-tracking software. Her responses are so realistic that, according to Mya Systems, even when applicants are told they’re talking to a bot, 72% of interviewees still thought they were chatting with a human.

“Every employer has a different take. Some want it to be more strict, others want it to be edgy and fun,” Grayevsky said. “We can customize that.”

Concerning the human element, Grayevsky says, “The human element is so critical, recruiters are overwhelmed with so much work because they’re doing boilerplate tasks.”

Mya launched in July 2016 and is already being used at Fortune 500 companies in the banking, retail, and consulting sectors. Companies pay a fee based on criteria such as the number of roles they’re hiring for and the number of applicants processed.

Grayevsky said three of the five largest U.S. recruiting firms already use the service — and he recently doubled his workforce to 16 employees to help manage the 1,000 potential customers on the waiting list. The company expects to have processed two million job applicants by the end of the year.

Of course there is no guarantee that a highly qualified candidate won’t slip through the cracks, whether AI the bot or a human is reviewing the CV’s. Eventually, Grayevsky hopes to accumulate a data set to improve all aspects of the hiring process. For example, early analysis of Mya’s dataset showed candidates who push back on compensation questions during an interview leave jobs more quickly.

Ultimately, Grayevsky has his eye on a larger goal. He wants to eliminate what economists call “frictional unemployment” — the inefficiency in the economy caused when people are in between jobs.

“We can move the needle on this, and that’s what gets us really excited.”

3 comments

Being as an educator and career counsellor, I am surprised to know about Job automation, it sounds really great but it has may be a disadvantages also related to recruitment on which we have to focus. And I appreciate Mya Systems which has developed an AI recruiter that can assess CV’s, schedule and conduct interviewee screenings. I have to share about this recruitment system with students who have been connected with us at Quality Dissertation by taking best dissertation editing services from the academic experts, so they can prepare themselves accordingly for a unique interview taken by the bot which can also actually help them get a job.